A young ancient existence. (2)

When a researcher found himself straying near James's hiding place, he didn't have time to scream or gasp in shock. James covered his mouth before he struck with one of Rob's poison pins.

He hoped the poison wasn't deadly, but he found himself not particularly caring about these people's fates. Somewhere across the room, a shuffle announced Rob's having started to take care of his part of the task. He might be used to sneaking around, but attacking people really wasn't his style.

James couldn't keep the invisibility spell on him from such a distance, so he'd elected to turn the spell off entirely, give himself some time to recover. He moved forward, knowing time was of the essence.

The second one, this time a woman, then a man, then two more before the first alarm went up. He'd been hoping he'd have taken care of at least half of them before the alarm went off, but that had been wishful thinking. He stared back to see that Rob was already attacking the woman who'd shouted.

She'd been out when they'd entered, and had come back to see a colleague and then two more slumped against a wall, no wonder she'd decided to shout. More importantly though, why was Rob so near the entrance to the cave anyway?

James fell back, catching the older woman by surprise and setting her wisened physique toward the wall. The others were starting to chant.

"We're going to have to go invisible again. How many had you gotten before she found you?"

Rob lifted a shoulder in affected nonchalance.

"Just the one. Two if you count that old lady too."

"What?! How the hell are you so useless man?"

"Hey, I told you I'm a robber, not an assassin. And now you want to turn me into both grave robber and assassin. And for some reason, you're good at this."

"But I have only the two pins. I don't have any other weapons, which was why I wanted to thin them out as much as possible."

"You have your crazy fire magic spell. And why don't you have at least a dagger?"

"I can't use such a strong fire spell in these...ah never mind. Duck!"

He finished saying his incantation just as three spells, all beautifully destructive sailed above their lowered heads.

"Stay close to me, and defend me. You're at least good for that, right?"

He didn't wait for the man to reply as he dived deeper into the cave proper. He snuffed out wall ensconced torches as he ran. Soon, the darkness of the cavern was only countered by the sickening green light from the river of disgusting mana. The closer James came to it, the more he felt like hurling his guts out.

The mages were panicking, standing in groups here and there and looking for an invisible enemy. Problem was, few were the humans who could use dark magic, and those humans who could were very weak at it. James on the other hand had dark elf blood for some reason he was sure would cause him trouble in the future.

He ran, even though his muscles were already threatening to give out. 'Man, I need more stamina. I need to come up with a work out regimen once we're out of here.'

He paused with his fist cocked to punch a mage. Something weird had just occurred. His natural instincts of laziness hadn't automatically kicked in. He frowned. It wasn't like they were gone. They were there but, muted, is what he'd say.

He shrugged mentally, and instead held out both his pins towards the panicking men in front of him. Two screamed as they went down, and every other one oriented on that spot.

Too bad James could speed away from the area using flight magic. Not too good for poor Rob, who just wasn't fast enough to avoid being impacted by at least three spells, though all were glancing blows.

"Damn it, brat! That guy near froze my arm off."

"Then take them out, you idiot! Take them out while we still have the advantage," even as two more fell to James.

A man a distance away cried out, and James knew Rob was starting to get serious. The cries rose to a high pitch as they made their way through the confused magicians. One started to release spells toward random locations, hitting one of his comrades in the process.

The panic spread, and one even found themselves falling into the river of mana. James felt bad for the thrashing woman, but there was nothing he could do except turn away from the sight as the mana burnt her skin like acid would have.

The sacrifices we make to fulfill our ambitions. Why a group of mages would subject themselves to this kind of torture just to gain more knowledge, more power?

"Hmm. That was surprisingly easy," Rob said after all the mages were subdued. "Do you think we'll have to deal with the guards too?"

"No doubt we will, but thats not for some time yet. They will have to first of all get protection from the rotting mana."

"Speaking of, what did it do to that lady?"

James touched Rob on the shoulder, and both rose over the river of mana to land on the other side. James tried to get the image of melting flesh from his mind's eye, but he couldn't.

"Argh, this stuff smells worse than concentrated sulfur. And I tried not to see that crap, thank you very much. I'd rather not have nightmares about this if I could avoid it."

"Nightmares, huh? For a minute there, I forgot that you were a noble kid who hasn't had cause to see much war."

"And I hope it stays that way forever."

Rob chuckled. "Sure, kid."

Deep in the mouth of the tunnel, the sound of heavy metal frictionating with the rough ground reached them. They had to hurry. James studied the giant box, looking for any physical means of opening.

"Here!" shouted Rob, and already he was setting down a small bag which contained tools.

"You think you can burst this baby open in under one minute? We kinda have to hurry since the guards sound like they're already here."

"Hey, don't rush me kid. I've tickled many a lock in my day, and they always laugh at my command."

His pins were already inside and wriggling, clinking noises were coming from inside the padlock.

"I bet this kind of thing comes in handy when you're dealing with the ladies?" James commented.

Rob grinned up at him. "How'd you know?"

"Just a guess. Think you could teach me sometime?"

"Only if you promise Aric won't find out. He'd kill me if this helped you get with the boss."

The boots started to sound like they were much closer. Rob's grin slid from his face, and he closed one eye in favour of staring at his work with one extra focused eye ball. The muscles of his jaws were set, his shoulders tense, his fingers dexterous. And then, with a click, the lock finally came undone.

The footsteps now sounded like they were just at the periphery of the cavern proper, and it sounded like they were running. James pulled the heavy metal door open, and Rob leaned in with him, before he reeled back in shock.

But James had no time to explain. He reached in and grabbed the jagged rock with its stinking jelly like liquid sloshing around.

"Rob, grab all the fragments. I'm going to cast the flight spell and we'll—"

Something interrupted him though, and it wasn't Rob's disbelieving question.

"This is what we came all the way here for?!"

James ignored him, for in that moment he was seeing something that shouldn't have existed.

'Why are you in such a rush human? Let's talk. I'd like to know the motives of my next tormenter, at the very least.'

"Tormenter? No. I'm no such thing, ancient one. I'm here on an errand for the great dragon Solas, and—"

"Who the hell are you talking to?!" Rob complained in growing agitation.

'Solas sent you?' The voice asked in excitement. Unbelievably childish excitement.

"Yes, and as I was saying, we have people here who wish to do us harm, so we ought to rush and get out of here. Rob, did you get the fragments of the egg?"

"Huh? Yes, but—"

"Lets go!"

The men burst into the cavern just as Rob slammed the metallic door shut and James finished reapplying his invisibility magic. They would have been skewered regardless if he hadn't had them airborne in seconds.

'I would normally say a group of puny humans doesn't scare me, but this strange stinky thing they've forced on me over these weeks has sapped away most of my strength and would have killed me in a few more days. I can hardly thrash or force myself to fly away from here.'

"Its funny you say this would have killed you."

He flew at speeds higher than he'd done before, the wind whipping at his face without mercy. Rob gave up the fight and shouted his discomfort. The guards shouted and pointed up to the ceiling, which was not that high above their heads.

James sighed, released a plume of wildfire into the cave. That one plume exploded the moment it touched the air, and it set their flight into a tumbling mess. The guards were in even worse condition.

James heard one or two struggling with the river of liquid mana, even as he bounced from rough wall to rough wall and his clothes tore and new gushes opened up in his skin. He held on to the divine power for dear life.

'Why is it weird that I thought I could die? Even creatures as great as we must lose our lives sometimes.'

"Because, my dear black dragon, you've been dead for the last few hundred years. Five hundred years at least."